


Lights at the End of the Tunnel

by Milkbonez



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Spoilers, major spoiler for ch 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-22 08:25:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19663546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milkbonez/pseuds/Milkbonez
Summary: When Kokichi swipes the card key motive from Monokuma, he and Kaede figure it's time to see for themselves what truly awaits at the end of the Death Road of Despair.





	Lights at the End of the Tunnel

**Author's Note:**

> This is another scene I had in mind for my now-cancelled Kaede AU (Kaede and Shuichi survive Ch 1, and after losing everyone's trust, Kaede ends up befriending Kokichi). I wrote this several months ago in less detail, then improved it into what you see now, largely as an exercise in trying to use descriptions to evoke strong feelings in the reader. In other words, I wanted to practice making people get feels! Also, even though I'm not devoting myself to a large project like Kaede AU (which would be an entire V3 rewrite), I love the potential Kaede and Kokichi have as friends, so I love exploring their partnership in a killing game scenario with this AU.
> 
> I may later add another chapter describing how Kokichi and Kaede cope with what they find.

_Clang! Clang! CLANG!_ Kaede managed to avoid the cages that dropped from the tunnel’s ceiling onto the bridge she crossed. Up ahead, blue sparks sprayed as Kokichi swung his Electrohammer. Flying bombs in the shape of Monokuma’s face crashed against the walls and into the darkness below. The whirring of tiny helicopter blades descended. Kaede sailed with her own hammer to knock away the last of the Monokuma bombs. Kokichi bashed open yet another iron door, and together they charged forward into the next part of the tunnel.

Though the ceiling looked solid enough, the pair was on high alert. Characteristic of other sections, weak lights set at irregular intervals made the tunnel almost too dim. Kokichi’s toe caught on the uneven steel floor, but he managed to right himself before he fell. It was eerily quiet. The only noises that whispered here came from the fallen cages from before, their chains clanking as they retreated into the ceiling.

Then they saw it: under a flickering white light, a familiar television screen leaned on the left wall.

Panting hard, Kaede asked, “Is this the end? I didn’t see any screens on the way through, except the one at the entrance.” Her limbs were heavy from exertion. Her feet ached in her shoes. Sore hands trembled on the Electrohammer’s handle.

Kokichi spared the screen a momentary glance. His eyes scanned the walls around them. A faint green glow came through the black unknown in front of them. “Maybe it is,” he mused, “but there might be last-second obstacles…”

Catching their breath, they skulked forward. Their hearts pounded more from anticipation than anything. The green glow revealed itself to be an electric barrier, stretching over a rounded door like a net. Gentle lights blinked on as they drew near, revealing no obvious traps.

“This is it. This _is_ the end…” A fluttering sensation rose up from within Kaede’s chest. She met Kokichi’s eyes with a smile growing on her face. “We did it! We cleared the Death Road of Despair!” A wave of relief washed over her, and she all but dropped her Electrohammer. “The outside world… It’s just behind that door, isn’t it? If Monokuma wasn’t lying…”

“Yeah, and we have the key right here.” Setting aside his own hammer, Kokichi fished the card key motive from one of his pockets. Beside the door stood a console with a little screen displaying strings of numbers. Nestled under the screen were a keypad and a card slot. He swiped the card key through it.

 **Reading…** said the screen, and then, **OK.** One hiss of air later, the green geometric light over the door faded off. Kaede squeed.

“Someone’s excited,” Kokichi remarked dryly.

“Of course! We can finally get out of here!” Her giddiness breathed new life into her exhausted body. She closed her eyes, smiling. “Mom and Dad… and my partner at home, my piano… Oh, Kokichi, I can already hear it, the song I’m going to compose for all of our friends here at the academy.”

“Doesn’t this seem a bit too easy?”

“Huh…? Wh-What do you mean?”

Kokichi plodded up to the set of double doors, inspecting its chrome surface. There was no latch or knob on it, only a darkened green light next to a shining red one. On the wall beside the door was a pair of colored buttons to match. The green button glowed brightly, then faded dim, over and over, begging to be pressed.

“It’s hard to believe Monokuma would just give us the key to unlock the door that supposedly leads to the outside world, don’t you think?”

Kaede considered. Monokuma couldn’t have foreseen Miu crafting weapons fit for blazing through the underground tunnel. Regardless, he and the Monokubs always had a habit of showing up at times like these. Where were they now? The thoughts doused her excitement, giving way to jittery anticipation.

“Well, we won’t know what’s on the other side of the door unless we open it,” she said finally. “Worst case scenario, the tunnel just keeps going and going…” She heaved a sigh and started to crack her knuckles.

Kokichi leaned over to check the power gauge near the head of his hammer. “If that’s the case, we’d need to turn back, recharge, and restrategize. But first, I’ll let you do the honors.”

Eyeing the ceiling, Kaede approached the door and, when she was certain none of the bears would interrupt her, slammed her fist against the flashing green button. Her head snapped over to the double doors at the clicking of latches coming loose. She stepped back to Kokichi’s side, eyes trained on the exit.

The doors began to slide open like jaws, a mechanical growl echoing through the tunnel. It and the anxious drumming of her own heart were the background music of her mental fantasy of rejoining the outside world. Shopping trips. Boring class lectures. Long nights in the den at her family’s piano. Her hands fiddled with the straps of her backpack. After all they’d been through here, they had to be able to go home. They had to. It was the happy ending they’d worked so hard for.

It was the hope her heart held in a death grip.

The door yawned open. Through a cold, shimmering haze, they saw down the street of a derelict, destroyed city. Streetlights bowed down over zigzagging fissures in the road. The sign hanging from a stoplight had been rendered illegible by years of wear. Rusted vehicles had their remains strewn about and seemed to sink into the ground. Even the looming skyscrapers were on their last crumbling legs, ready to collapse at the slightest provocation. The afternoon sun had to fight through a smothering blanket of black clouds, painting the horrifying tableau a blood-red hue.

All the oxygen rushed out of her lungs, out of the despair tunnel. Kaede couldn’t even gasp; the air was thick with something harsh, acrid. Her throat and eyes stung. She choked, coughed, one hand clutching at her neck. The door! They had to shut the door…!

… …

…

Gulping air, she came to lying on the ground in front of the doors, now shut. Breathing the clear air helped soothe her burning throat a little. Drops clung to her eyelashes. She struggled to blink them away. She wasn’t sure if it was because they were still irritated, or…

The image of what lay beyond the doors flashed in her mind. It triggered a flood of tears that she couldn’t hold back. “What… was that…?” she whispered.

Her vision cleared enough to see Kokichi on the ground underneath the flashing green Open button, knees to his chest, hiding his face in his arms. “Kokichi?” rasped Kaede. “W-W-Was that—”

“Whaddya think it was?” crooned Monokuma’s voice mere inches from her ear.

Kaede nearly hit the ceiling from surprise. Wiping her tears from her cheeks, she sat up to face Monokuma properly. Her voice was still hoarse when she snarked, “Look who finally decided to show up.”

“Hey, you two looked like you were handling my carefully-placed traps just fine… with your new toys.” He nodded at their Electrohammers laying off to the side. “I didn’t want to interfere with your fun.”

“Well, wasn’t that nice of you~” Kokichi chirped. His position had changed: one leg was stretched out in front of him, and he leaned one elbow casually his still-raised knee. When he finished speaking, he flashed a jokey half-smile. His eyes didn’t even seem affected by the harsh air.

Kaede huffed. “Whatever. I want to know what you’re trying to get at here.”

Monokuma chuckled. “I was simply answering your question, like the helpful headmaster I am. Judging by how crappy you two looked when I showed up, I take it you already know what you saw.” He cocked his head, showing off more of his sneering black side, when her eyes widened ever so slightly. “C’mon now! Do you really think this place is called the ‘Death Road of Despair’ for no reason? You saw exactly what you wanted to see—outside world you’ve wanted to escape to so badly!”

Gripping her elbow, she avoided the bear’s blood-red glare by casting her gaze to a glance Kokichi’s face. His enviable expression was straight, unreadable. Even so, his voice was hardly above a whisper when he asked, “But then how did… _that_ happen?”

“Puhuhuhu! You’re on your own for that one! But I will give you this: while you two bastards were skulking around, the rest of the class went on the hunt for another Flashback Light. Perhaps the memory it restores will be of some use to you.” With that, Monokuma skipped off into the shadows.

Kaede watched the darkness after he went, her jaw tightening as if that could restrain her tears. So it was true…? “Th-The outside world is…” Her vision blurred as the crushing weight of reality fell on her. Face twisting into a grimace, she clamped her hands over her mouth, muffled wails escaping around them.

_You saw exactly what you wanted to see—outside world you’ve wanted to escape to so badly!_

All of a sudden, Kokichi cried out, _“SHIT!”_ He’d hunched over on his knees, forehead down, both hands gripping his hair, as he yelled over and over. _“Shit, shit, shit…!!”_ His words devolved into unintelligible blubbering, wordless groans, agonized bawls that reverberated back down the tunnel.

It was the most vulnerable state she’d ever seen him in.

And at the provocation of his brokenness, Kaede crumbled. Shrugging out of her backpack, she yanked off her vest, balled it up, shoved her face into it, and screeched. Her limbs tingled; she wanted so badly to run away somewhere… but there was nowhere to go. As she wailed and wept, one word kept repeating in her mind: _pointless._

Pointless.

Pointless.

Everything that had happened up to now had been utterly pointless. All the students who died, victims and culprits both, died completely in vain.

The duo had tried so hard to find the mastermind and uncover the school’s mysteries. They wanted no more deaths, they wanted to prevent more people from being swayed by Monokuma’s motives and trying to kill to go home… But there was no home to go home to. There were no Mom and Dad, no friends and classmates, no audience members… The glimpse of the outside world they’d been granted was enough to tell them that it was all gone. Destroyed. Snuffed out under a smothering blanket of black clouds and unbreathable air.

This was the secret of the outside world, and it swept over the two of them like a tsunami of despair and pain.


End file.
